This section is intended to provide some information relevant to understanding various technologies described herein. As the section's title implies, this is a discussion of related art that should in no way imply that it is prior art. Generally, related art may or may not be considered prior art. It should therefore be understood that any statement in this section should be read in this light, and not as any admission of prior art.
Integrated circuits may include power gating to reduce power consumption. Power gating may be used to shut off current to blocks of an integrated circuit when those blocks are not in use. In fine-grained power gating, specialized standard cells may be distributed throughout a power gated blocks' standard cell area in a set pattern. These specialized cells may be referred to as power switches or power gates and may use various types of transistors to disconnect an external power supply from a power standard cell rail or to disconnect an external ground supply from a ground standard cell rail. Some standard cells in a block may receive a power/ground supply through standard cell rails. In some situations, a sleep signal may be routed to power switch cells. When the sleep signal is active, current from an always-on power supply may be shut off to a respective standard cell rail. In some cases, pre-placed obstructions in a floorplan of an integrated circuit design may cause power switches to be placed off of a set pattern. These obstructions may block a path of the sleep signal. As such, there is a need for an efficient way to connect sleep signals to power switches that accounts for floorplan obstructions so as to reduce the signal routing impact of the sleep signal.